Daily Archives: January 7, 2019

The title of this post is the announcement I just received in a CES invite to assess product security. Well, technically it was a “VIP lounge” invite more than a “please break our product” invite, but I treat them the same if you know what I mean.

Perhaps most infamously when I went to CES many years ago and met with 3Com to review their brand new wifi access points (first to market), I immediately pointed out that hard-wired WEP keys was a VBI (very bad idea). 3Com product managers were unapologetic, citing usability as their ace card. “Nobody will use wifi if we make key management hard” they said like a blackjack player scooping all the chips into their lap. We both were right, but they no longer exist (acquired 2010 by HP and never heard from again).

I suppose today what stands out to me most about this new announcement is the “dust-sized” marketing.

Some may remember I have presented in by “big data security” talks specifically on the paranoia that should accompany any developments in dust level of tracking devices, as well as the ironic fact that if you walk in an obfuscating level of dust (more probably sand) it leaves obvious tracks.

Cretaceous period (127m year old) dust print

I’m looking forward to breaking this new product to point out the VBIs, and maybe even coming up with something like “sweep deprivation” models.